. . . sells back seized ships

The PNG Government is selling back confiscated Taiwanese ships to their owners.

The sale offers are being made at bargain prices to ensure the repatriation of the stranded crewmen still living on board two ships. The presence of the crewmen since last year has been an increasing source of embarrassment to PNG officials since the ships were seized for entering local fishing grounds.

“We just didn’t know how difficult and expensive it would become to get these men home again,” one official said today. He added, “No one wants to take them, no one is going their way anyhow, and they don’t have much money.”

The two ships involved have about 40 crewmen between them.

They are the Taiwanese clam fishing vessel Huang Shang Fay, held at Port Moresby, and Shin Sho, held at Samarai in Eastern Papua.

Both ships were seized in penalty. One master was fined $9O0 —which he paid from a wad of United States dollars in his pocket—and the other was gaoled for three months.

The crewmen, who did not face any charges, have been living in the ships since because there was nowhere else to put them.

Government engineers removed engine parts from the two ships so that they could not be moved.

The government has now negotiated the sale of one ship to its owners for $5,200 and a figure of $5,200 for the other is under consideration. This is considerably below the value of the ships, but the effective result is that a heavier fine has been paid—and PNG no longer has the responsibility of the crewmen.

The crew of the Huang Shang Fay were so short of money late in January that they were boiling leaves to make soup and eke out a small daily ration of rice and small fish. On January 31, their total supply of food was down to 15 lb of rice.

Meanwhile, in Rabaul another group of Taiwanese fishermen was about to leave for home after giving a concert to thank the town for its hospitality.

The men were stranded there last year when their ship was wrecked in the Carteret Islands north of Bougainville.